Push-ups are an exercise to develop the muscles of the chest, the arms, and the shoulders. Conventionally, push-ups have been performed by the user laying face down on a flat horizontal surface and raising and lowering his body by vertically extending and contracting his arms.
K. L. Jennings, Sr., in his U.S. Pat. No. 2,666,640 granted Jan. 19, 1954 for "Exercising Stand", discloses an appliance for raising the hands of the exerciser above the floor, thus allowing him to lower the upper portion of his body below the normal level of his shoulders when performing push-ups. His device extends the range of exercise movement to which the user can subject his body, preferably with favorable results.
An embellishment on the Jennings, Sr. apapratus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,015, granted Feb. 13, 1990, to T. E. Dissinger, for "Exercise Device". This inventor provided a stand which requires the user to apply forces to the handgrips in the two different directions while performing push-ups.
With both of these prior art appliances, the user is working only against the weight of his own body. No provisions have been made for exercising against any greater weight.